Nearly two years on from the carriage negotiations that promised to change the landscape of the entire pay TV industry, Disney and Charter have reached another, much smaller, agreement.
The new deal expands the current carriage agreement, adding Hulu’s ad-supported tier to Spectrum TV Select plans, along with the eight minor cable networks dropped during the 2023 dispute, per Dade Hayes of Deadline. Crucial for sports fans, however, is that the new agreement will include ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service in the Spectrum TV Select plan.
Per Hayes, “Charter has been aggressively bundling streaming services into TV and broadband packages, touting it as a value-add of more than $100 a month for many customers. The company has seen benefits in reduced subscriber losses, though the pay-TV sector overall continues to shrink due to cord-cutting.”
Indeed, Charter has been keen on bundling as many streaming services into its overall pay TV package as possible. It has largely been a prerequisite for negotiations with content providers. Last year, its carriage agreement with Comcast included Peacock at no additional cost for its subscribers. Before that, Charter’s negotiations with Spanish-language TV giant TelevisaUnivision included the popular Vix+ streaming service at no additional cost. And, of course, Disney+ was a critical element of Charter’s negotiations with Disney two years ago.
“We began this journey to transform the video proposition for consumers with Disney, so it is befitting that this new agreement and the doubling down on our strategy continues with them,” Charter exec Tom Montemagno told Deadline, highlighting the company is intent on doing deals “mid-cycle and absent from any of the typical pressures from expiring agreements.”
Also included in the expanded agreement are Disney Jr, Disney XD, Freeform, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and BabyTV, all of which were dropped by Charter during initial negotiations in 2023.